The blanks have been filled in for the Riot Fest Toronto 2015 lineup. Most excitingly, Weezer is playing their two best albums (Blue Album and Pinkerton), and in addition to that, there's The Prodigy, Cancer Bats, Bleachers, Courage My Love and Ritual.

FIDLAR will release their second album, Too, on September 4 via Mom + Pop. The album's first single is "40oz on Repeat" and its accompanying video pays low-budget homage to some of a whole bunch of music videos, including ones by Devo, Suicidal Tendencies, Missy Elliot, The Beastie Boys, The Hives, Oasis, Korn, and more. Watch it below.

Having just wrapped up their tour with METZ (which hit NYC last week for two wild shows), FIDLAR have now announced a fall tour which includes Chicaco and Toronto editions Riot Fest and another NYC show, happening September 26 at Webster Hall. Tickets to the NYC show go on sale Friday (6/5) at 10 AM. All dates are listed below...

Riot Fest Torontoreturns in 2015 from September 19-20 in Downsview Park, and today the initial lineup has been announced. There's Wu-Tang Clan, Rancid (performing ...And Out Come the Wolves), Motorhead, Drive Like Jehu, Echo & the Bunnymen, Thrice, Alexisonfire, Eagles of Death Metal, Against Me!, Babes In Toyland, GWAR, The Thurston Moore Band, DOA, The Dead Milkmen, Moneen, Atmosphere, Doomtree, Andrew WK, FIDLAR, Tyler the Creator, and many more. Two of the headliners are TBA, one of which is performing an album in full, and a few other bands will be added too.

Tickets go on sale June 16, the same day that the full lineup will be announced.

METZ have announced details of their second album, METZ II, which will be out May 5 via Sub Pop. (Pre-order yours.) They've shared a song from it as well, "Acetate," which you can listen to while you watch the band's friend Travis Millard make graphic-designed pancakes for his dog Rodney. They say it's "not the video" but it's more of one than most songs get these days, and is worth watching. The song's a real ripper too, as you'd expect from METZ. Watch it below.

The band are touring this spring, and dates include two stops in NYC: Bowery Ballroom on May 26 and Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 27. Both dates, and much of the tour, are with FIDLAR making lower case letters obselete for much of April and May. Tickets for both NYC shows go on sale Friday (2/20) at noon with an AmEx presale beginning Wednesday at noon.

In other news, METZ's Alex Edkins has teamed with Holy Fuck's Brian Borcherdt and Constantines' Doug MacGregor for a new Canadian supergroup called LIDS. Their debut 7" is titled "Sarsfest" and will be out March 17 via Toronto label Telephone Explosion. You can stream that below.

All dates are listed, along with the LP art, tracklist and "Acetate" video, below...

We're officially in Music Festival Announcement Season, and the latest one is Atlanta's annualShaky Knees Festival, happening May 8-10. This year includes The Strokes, The Avett Brothers, Wilco, Pixies, Social Distortion, Ryan Adams, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Tame Impala, Brand New, Mastodon, Neutral Milk Hotel (supposedly one of your last chances to see them for a while), Interpol, Flogging Molly, TV on the Radio, Manchester Orchestra, James Blake, Death from Above 1979, Dr. Dog, Spiritualized, Panda Bear, American Football, Clutch, Black Lips, The Mountain Goats, Best Coast, Real Estate, Wavves, Built to Spill, The Both, Mac DeMarco, Minus the Bear, Old 97's, FIDLAR, METZ, THe Bronx, Speedy Ortiz, Palma Violets, VIet Cong, Strand of Oaks and more. Tickets are on sale now.

Man, Burger Records is really feeling the Angus Soundtrack '90s kids lately. First they signed The Muffs and now they've booked Weezer for their fourth Burgerama festival happening March 28-29 at The Observatory in Santa Ana, CA. And that's not their only kinda-crazy booking this year. They've also got Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, the current version of Gang of Four, and of course plenty of awesome more expected names like Ty Segall, Black Lips, J Mascis, Ariel Pink, Roky Erickson, King Khan & BBQ Show, FIDLAR, White Fence, together PANGEA, The Queers, The Coathangers, Shannon and the Clams, JEFF the Brotherhood, La Luz, Girl Band and still plenty more as you can see in the full lineup below. Tickets go on sale at 10 AM PST on Friday (12/12).

On Sunday, Canadian singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco was preparing for his set in the green room when we caught up with him. "I used to think Burger was just garage, but it's more 'anything goes' nowadays," said DeMarco. His set on the main stage bounced between funky guitars that shimmered and dipped low during a spaced-out rendition of "Ode to Viceroy," where DeMarco celebrated his favorite brand of cigarettes through song...

..."I just want to get really high, smoke weed until I die," sang [FIDLAR singer Zac] Carper, who banged up his knees pretty badly early in the set. The letters for FIDLAR appeared above the stage in flaming letters that resembled the Vegas skyline on the Fourth of July, while the band scared the shit out of everyone by tossing small firecrackers into a puddle of water and beer that covered the stage - which at times, looked like it was ready to go up in flames. At points, the entire surrounding area smelled like gun powder, cheap beer, and weed. - [LA Weekly]

In addition to Georgia soul singer Curtis Harding, the second day (3/23) of Burgerama III in Santa Ana, CA featured a lot of wild, widely diverse sets -- FIDLAR, Mac DeMarco, metal band Sleep, together PANGEA, White Fang and more all wound up the party-hardy throngs of crowd-surfers. Belated pics from Burgerama III day 2 are in this post.

Our friends at DoNYC (who we just co-hosted our holiday party with) are celebrating their one year anniversary with two nights of free music at Baby's All Right on January 27 and 28. The first night has FIDLAR (who are on tour with the Pixies), Amanda X (who we just caught opening for Parquet Courts), and a special guest TBA. Then the second night has Marnie Stern, Torres and more TBA. Both are free with RSVP.

We mentioned briefly yesterday that Black Lips would be playing this year's edition of Burger Records' Burgerama fest which happens at The Observatory in Santa Ana, CA on March 23 & 24. Today, the Burger folks released the initial line-up for Burgerama III which is pretty killer if you're into the rock n' roll lifestyle the store/label has become synonymous with. Among the acts playing this year: Mac DeMarco, Death, FIDLAR, Nobunny, Gap Dream, Kool Keith (!), Allah-Las, The Orwells, The Tyde and loads more. Full lineup below.

FIDLAR and The Orwells' current tour slammed into NYC last Thursday (10/24) for a show at Bowery Ballroom. It was entirely appropriate that this Bowery punk show was opened by dirty New York rockers Shocked Minds. Singer Josh Martin cut his teeth in Atlanta with the much loved Carbonas and currently plays guitar and sings with the esteemed Ex Humans, but with Shocked Minds is where he really shines. Compared to bands like Dead Boys and Exploding Hearts, Shocked Minds have a reputation that precedes them with quite large shoes to fill, but they don't disappoint. Their brand of gritty, old school New York punk was not what this teenage crowd came to hear, but it's maybe what they should be listening to. Songs off their self titled LP (released earlier this year on Hozac) hit the mark -- drummer Kirk Podell punctuating each beat with accuracy.

The Orwells, from Chicago, are incredibly young and most of them looked like they were going to get grounded for playing this show. The singer Mario walked out like he owned the stage, and the crowd went wild for him. He continued to flip his hair and ponce around like a curly blonde Mick Jagger/Adam Ant hybrid for the entire set, simultaneously warning the crowd about destroying the "VERY EXPENSIVE" monitors, and then almost pushing them off the stage himself while attempting to touch hands/bodies with as many audience members as possible. The crowd lapped it up, and they went down a treat.

stage divers doing FIDLAR's set

This particular show was a 16+ sold out affair, and as the room filled to complete capacity I started to feel old as shit. FIDLAR have been touring for the best part of a year and a half, but they don't seem even slightly fazed, their energy resonating with the crowd who were thrilled to be in their presence. At all times throughout their set, almost half the stage was filled with people dancing, singing, fist pumping and stage diving. FIDLAR took it all in good grace and gave the crowd exactly what they wanted -- singalong 90s skate punk, short and sweet and to the point, no complications and lyrics about being 'awkward' and "I DRINK CHEAP BEER SO WHAT FUCK YOU" etc.

Their cover of 'Red Right Hand' by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, whilst giving props for taste, fell flat and seemed disjointed and out of place. The single "No Waves," though, was a highlight, an upbeat song about self destruction -- the teenage crowd sang along to every lyric, one girl crowd surfing with a backpack and a grin. The Blink 182 reference kept flashing bright in my brain but I assumed it was my '90s teenage years giving away my age, until they finished the set with 'Dammit" by Blink 182. The crowd was going wild throughout their entire set and FIDLAR gave back much love. Despite my reluctance to buy into West Coast '90s throwback skater punk, this band feels authentic and genuine with everything they are.

The Pixies recently wrapped up a 4-night run of small NYC shows, and now the reinvigorated band, with a new lineup and new music in tow, have announced the full North American leg of their world tour for 2014. The tour doesn't come back to NYC, but it does include area shows happening at Port Chester's Capitol Theatre on January 19 and Newark's NJ Performing Arts Center on January 21. Tickets for all shows on the tour go on sale Friday (10/11) at 10 AM. You can get Cap tickets via Ticketfly and NJPAC tickets via Ticketmaster. All dates are listed below.

Much has been going on in the punk world lately, and in case you've missed out, here's a roundup of information on upcoming shows (mostly in NYC), and other related news. The big one is probably the inevitable news that Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn sued FLAG, the other currently operating incarnation of Black Flag. You can catch the impostors when their tour hits NYC on Septemeber 19 at Irving Plaza (tickets).

FLAG, as you may know, also share members with another classic punk band Descendents, and both of those bands will be playing this year's Fun Fun Fun Fest, which goes down in Austin from November 8-10. Tickets for that festival are still available.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Under the Gun (via Exclaim), Descendents drummer/producer Bill Stevenson mentioned that the band are slowly, but surely working on a new record, which will be the followup to 2004's Cool to be You. Bill said:

[The record is] in the embryonic stages. I have my studio, The Blasting Room, Stephen [Egerton] lives in Tulsa, and he has a studio too. Milo [Aukerman] even has a real small recording apparatus in his basement. Karl [Alvarez] still lives by me.

So I went in a couple of weeks ago and recorded, so we got 11 songs done, [but] just the drums. We'll be passing those around, Stephen will be putting guitars on 'em, Karl will be putting bass on 'em, Milo will be singing on 'em. We'll get rolling but it's not gonna be like "Oh it'll be done in a month!" It's gonna take us several months.

Descendents have also recently been honored by some bands they've influenced. Pop punks Candy Hearts released a cover of "Nothing With You" on their new 7" (listen below), and FILTER Magazine recently released a free tribute album that features FIDLAR, Mike Watt + The Secondmissingmen, The Bronx, YACHT, TEEN, Good Riddance, and more.

Good Riddance, the '90s era Cali punks who reunited in 2012, will be playing their first NYC shows since reuniting, all of which will happen during this year's CMJ. They'll be playing both official Fat Wreck Chords (who put out the last Descendents record) showcases, including the one happening at Music Hall of Williamsburg on October 18 with The Flatliners, Western Addiction, and Brooklyn/NJ's Night Birds, whose new album, Born to Die in Suburbia, does a lot of justice to the sound bands like Descendents and Good Riddance helped create. That same lineup (minus The Flatliners) sets sail aboard a Rocks Off Cruise the next day (10/19). MHOW tickets are on AmEx presale now, and a general on-sale stars Friday (8/9) at noon. Rocks Off tickets go on sale Friday at noon.

Night Birds also have some dates with Zero Boys, including a NYC show on August 29 at Europa with Nuclear Santa Claust. Tickets for that show are still available.

Another long-running Cali punk band, not too far removed from Descendents or Black Flag, Angry Samoans play a previously discussed NYC show on September 15 at Bowery Electric with Last Call Brawl and Downtown Brown (tickets).

Another good punk option in NYC happening much sooner (this weekend to be exact) is As discussed, Citizens Arrest (who once counted Ted Leo as a member), who play Brooklyn's Acheron on Saturday (8/10) (57 Waterbury St) with Enabler, Miscegenator, and Dead Serious. Tickets are still available.

NYC street punk vets The Casualties have some Northeast dates this September. None of them are in NYC, but they do have an Orange County show on 9/7 at Ma and Pa's, a Long Island show on 9/12 at Revolution, and two NJ shows: 9/13 at Stanhope House and 9/14 at Brighton Bar. All of their dates are listed below.

Another East Coast punk tour lands in the NYC-area this month when Protagonist and related project Teen Agers hit New Brunswick on August 13 at Court Tavern with Not The Bees and Lay the Blame on Luck, and Brooklyn on August 14 at Saint Vitus with Go Deep, Scarboro and Divided Heaven. Tickets for the Saint Vitus show are on sale now.

Joyce Manor also have other shows around the one at HoV, including another Brooklyn show happening on August 17 at Knitting Factory with Glocca Morra and Dogs On Acid (ex-Algernon Cadwallader). Tickets for the Knit show are still available.

Obviously these are only a few of the upcoming punk shows in NYC. What else?

We've already posted a bunch of videos this week like The Weeknd's Portishead-nicking new song, Earl Sweatshirt, Titus Andronicus covering "Glory Days", David Bowie, and more. But unfortunately we don't get to all the cool videos that come out during the week (or weeks), so here's our attempt at playing catch-up. Check out videos from FIDLAR (featuring more of Nick Offerman than you may be ready for), Johnny Marr, Braids, CocoRosie, Coliseum, Mikal Cronin, The Flaming Lips, Neko Case, one of Vampire Weekend giving advice to teenage girls, and more, below.

Batten down the hatches, two of the country's more rambunctious young bands -- FIDLAR and The Orwells -- will be on tour together this fall. Their trek includes a stop in NYC at Bowery Ballroom on October 24. Tickets for that show go on AmEx presale on Wednesday (5/15) at noon with the general on-sale happening Friday (5/17) at noon.

Bumbershoot is returning to Seattle this year from August 31 to September 2 at Seattle Center. This year's lineup was just announced, and it includes Death Cab for Cutie performing Transatlanticism (in case The Postal Service reuniting wasn't enough Ben Gibbard nostalgia for you), Kendrick Lamar, MGMT, The Breeders, The Zombies, Alt-J, Deerhunter, Baroness, Crystal Castles, Gary Numan, Joey Bada$$, Eric Burdon, Bob Mould, David Bazan, Charli XCX, Redd Kross, The Men and more.

Tickets (3-day passes, 2-day passes, and single day tickets) for the festival are on sale now.

This was one of the wildest, crowd-surfingest, beer-flinging shows I've been to in a long time, with a crowd clearly already in weekend party mode and two acts -- Wavves and FIDLAR -- right there with them. Both bands share a similar sound, and probably recreational activities. It was a very fun night.

Wavves, who are on the heels of a very catchy new album, headlined and have come a long way since the first time I saw them at SXSW 2009, the band being as tight as they need be with the punky pop material. The crowd sang along loudly while hurling themselves into each other to most of the songs, which cherry-picked from Wavves' output to date. Most of them, at least. One guy spent the whole show by the stage, Sharpie in hand, trying to get bassist (and former Reatard) Stephen Pope to sign his CD. (Dude, just wait till after show!) Nathan Williams seemed a little subdued for most of the set but lept onto crowd during the last song, surfing over to Glasslands' balcony where he pulled himself up onto it before diving back down into it.

FIDLAR's Zac Carper, meanwhile, matched the crowd the crowd leap for leap during their raucous set. Before the end of the first song he was rolling on the stage floor, a position he'd be in more than once before their set finished. Carper also let us know what FIDLAR stands for about six times ("Fuck it Dog Life's A Risk" if you're wondering) and what drug each song was about (meth, LSD, pot, cocaine, cheap beer, some were not about drugs). These guys are playing standard fare skatepunk that doesn't do a lot for me on record, but there is no denying the genuine energy they bring live. Gleeful mayhem.

Openers Cheatahs were the band I was most looking forward to. A little more on the early '90s shoegaze tip, the London-based band were tight and sounded great -- somewhere between Swervedriver and Smeared-era Sloan (their singer is actually from Canada, wonder if he's a fan) -- but they seemed to eschew most of their hookiest songs in favor of newer, more ambitious material. But maybe that's what you do when you've got the 8:45 slot, test out new stuff. Still, when they launched into their soaring track "The Swan" (from the terrific, just-released U.S. introduction, Extended Plays), Cheatahs shined.

Metallica held their inaugural Orion Music & More festival in Atlantic City in 2012, and as mentioned, they'll be moving to Detroit for the 2013 installment. It happens from June 8 - 9 in Belle Isle and the lineup was just announced, including headliners Metallica joined by Japandroids, FLAG, Tomahawk, Gogol Bordello, Death Grips, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Deftones, The Dirtbombs, Death, Foals, The Bronx, The Orwells, Red Hot Chili Peppers, FIDLAR, and more. Full lineup below. The announcement includes no word on Metallica playing full albums like they did last year.

Tickets for the festival go on sale to the general public on Friday (3/1) at 10 AM EST with a Met Club presale starting Tuesday (2/26) at 10 AM and an Orion E-list member presale on Wednesday (2/27) at 10 AM.

As mentioned, Wavves are finally getting around to releasing the followup to 2010's KIng of the Beach this year. The record is called Afraid of Heights and will be out on March 26 via Mom + Pop. It features guest vocals from Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis and guest drumming from The Bronx's Jorma Vik. The band just revealed the album tracklist and cover art, which you can check out below.

Late last year, Wavves made a video for the album's opening track, "Sail to the Sun," and they've just revealed another album cut, "Demon to Lean On." The songwriting and cleaner production (the record was done with pop producer John Hill) has the band sounding more pop punk than ever. Frontman Nathan Williams will tell you he was listening to Weezer's Blue Album everyday while making the record, but you'll hear the snotty anthems of blink-182 in there too. Check out both tracks below.

Wavves will be supporting the record this spring, which kicks off after SXSW, with support from LA brats FIDLAR and UK pop shoegazers Cheatahs. That tour hits NYC for two very intimate shows (for Wavves' standards): April 11 at Glasslands and April 12 at Shea Stadium. Tickets for the Glasslands show and the Shea Stadium show go on sale Friday (2/1) at 9 AM.

Deer Tick's three-week Brooklyn Bowl residency begins TONIGHT (12/5). As mentioned, they'll be performng different albums and EPs in full at the three shows. Unfortunately no War Elephant (which they recently performed at a Newport Folk Fest afterparty), but we will get:

Doors for each show are at 8pm, and Deer Tick guitarist Ian O'Neil opens each show with a solo set. Other openers include Hollis Brown on 12/5, Viking Moses in 12/12, and Alex Bleeker on 12/19. Deer Tick's other upcoming shows include the Capitol Theater with My Morning Jacket and Maxwell's. They're all listed below.

Delta Spirit wrapped up their tourwith JEFF the Brotherhoodand FIDLAR this past Wednesday (11/28) in Boston, after hitting NYC for a show at Irving Plaza a day earlier (11/27). Delta Spirit were touring behind their new self titled album, from which they played a bunch, but kept the setlist well split between that and their other albums. During their setlist, Delta Spirit's Matt Vasquez dedicated "Ransom Man" to musicians who lost equipment during Hurricane Sandy.

More pictures from the Irving Plaza show (including one of the setlist), below.

JEFF spoke to us about their favorite music of the year and gave us a list of their top ten albums. Some of the bands on the list (like Diarrhea Planet and Heavy Cream and Skimask and Cy Barkley) are on their Infinity Cat label, but that doesn't mean we don't believe them. Check out the full list below...